The RAND Corp Bomb Damage Effect Computer.

RAND Corp.

Publication Date: 1958

About this Item

The RAND Corp Bomb Damage Effect Computer. (1958).

3 dials (two moving). Lovelace Corp. 3-D: 10.5 × 10.2 × 0.3cm (4 1/8 × 4 × 1/8 in.) Housed in a 5"x4.5" heavy paper sleeves with guidelines for use of the computer. The paper sleeve is in VG condition; the computer/slide rule is in FINE condition.  

I should note here that the computer gets maxxed out at 100 megatons. The largest bomb ever built and test was the Tsara weapon, which was 50 megatons. Hiroshima by comparison was 20 kilotons. So.

Provenance: half-faded rubber stamp for the "Civilian Test Operations, Division of Biology and Medicine, United States Atomic Energy Commission, Washington D.C." Also, "Dr. Coker" is written on the sleeve as well. Dr. Coker was Joseph Coker, chief of the National Resource Evaluation Center, Office of Emergency Planning, Executive off of the President.

There are several versions of a slide rule that are strongly similar to this version, and there are identical models are online at the Air and Space Museum, the Computer History Museum, and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Museum. This is similar to the probably better-known bomb effects computer included in the rear pocket of "The Effects of Nuclear Weapons" (that appeared in different editions of the book in 1957, 1964, and 1977).

"The great thing about the RAND Bomb Damage Effect Computer is that it is made of aluminum rather than plastic or (heaven forbid) cardboard; this is a high quality item. Not surprising when you consider that it was produced for the military. It allowed the aircrew of a bomber to predict the size of the crater produced by the thermonuclear weapon they were about to release. It also gave the pilot some idea as to the size of the fireball and the altitude that was required to minimize the contamination of the aircraft by fallout. In other words, it did much the same thing as several other slide rules. e.g., the BLR Nuclear Weapon Effects Computer. One imaginative reference to this device (Greeley 2011) indicated that it was used by RAND employees "to estimate megadeaths." A nice example of dramatic license."-ORAU Museum of Radiation and Radioactivity, Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Seller Inventory # ABE-1774022761040

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The RAND Corp Bomb Damage Effect Computer.
• Publication Date: 1958
• Binding: No Binding
• Condition: Fine
• Weight: 14 ounces
• Seller catalogs:
  • Technology
  • Atomic Bomb/Nuclear Weapons
  • Physics
  • Military